Throughout the 21st century, various politicians have attempted to define terrorism. Yet, terrorism is a broad topic and having searched for the true meaning of terrorism, the universal definition of terrorism does not exist. The UN Security Council Resolution 1566 (2004) gives a definition of terrorism as “criminal acts…against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons..” Also, the United States have defined terrorism under the Federal Criminal Code, Title 18. It defines and lists the crimes associate with terrorism . Section 2331 of Chapter 113(B), defines terrorism as, “activities …show more content…
ISIS is mainly made of Sunni Arabs from Iraq and Syria. Sunni and Shiites Muslims are the two major denominations of Islam. The U.S. president Barack Obama says: “Instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group” (Contorno, 2015). The rhetorical analysis of Obama message is that he imposed airstrikes on ISIS, which some people agree with. However, others would argue that good speech and no action is meaningless and a waste of time and resources. Until now, the debate rages on. Obama’s approaches to fighting terrorism are only partially effective against ISIS, but there are possible solutions to it: Intensifying Air Strikes, Sending ground forces and Getting rid of the mastermind. Obama’s approach of limited airstrikes has not effectively worked. On September 10, 2014 President Obama claims: These strikes have protected American personnel and facilities, killed ISIL fighters, destroyed weapons, and given space for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim key territory (White House press). The president came out last year blowing his own horn on national television about the success of his foreign policy, which he knows that it is not true. The president knows that bombing one place of an enemy does not grantee total success. According to Defense analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “those American airstrikes amount to what he calls an ‘unfocused mess’ in both countries”
...ous statements it can be inferred that in some ways the Obama administration was like the Bush Administration in terms of foreign national policies. Obama also made poor choices by expanding on Bush policies that were already a dangerous jaunt from constitutional practices. Another thing Obama did was increase our expenditures by the billions, which can cause harm in his domestic reform agendas, and might lead to divisive and expensive foreign wars.
Byman’s first argument is that US drone strikes are extremely efficient in their purpose: eliminating high value targets in foreign countries that pose a threat to national security. He cities a study done by the New America Foundation, which found that “U.S. drones have killed an estimated 3,300 al Qaeda, Taliban, and other jihadist operatives in Pakistan and Yemen” (Byman 1). Of these 3,300 militants, over 50 were senior leaders of either Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Additionally, drone strikes indirectly hinder communication between terrorist leaders and their operatives. In an effort to avoid detection, many foreign militants have stopped using cell phones and other electronic forms of communication. Although the elimination of technology makes it harder to find high value targets, it also significantly impacts their ability to communicate, which reduces the amount of organized attacks. Without considering the cost of civilian casualties or other negative impacts associated with the drone strikes, it is clear that UAV drones have been effective in eliminating foreign threats.
Wesley Clark, a former United States Army General and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, states in his book Winning Modern Wars that “Defeating terrorism is more difficult and far-reaching than we have assumed....We may be advancing the ball down the field at will, running over our opponent's defenses, but winning the game is another matter altogether.” He also stated in the preface of the book “that the Bush administration had rushed us, pushed us, mislead, and manipulated us into war with Iraq with at the expense of the real war against Al- Qaeda.” Clark in writing stating this is essentially telling us we (The United States) have somehow overstepped our boundaries by acting in this “War on Terror,” and while he might have made a gutsy statement, he is correct. One would have to agree with Clark’s theory, our president, George W. Bush, who initiated the “War On Terror” essentially went into this war believing that armed forces were going to step into the terrorists backyard mow the lawn and come back home in one piece. Well, he was wrong, our troops have yet to come home and those who have did not come back in one piece; they came back with psychological bruises and others without their lives. Nevertheless, the impetus of this war was the lack of presidential checking that our Congress neglected to do. What caused it was that our former president, George W. Bush, unofficially expanded his powers as president, and acted impulsively rather than logically, which should have never and should never happen again. By discussing the original powers of the president as enumerated in the United States Constitution, as well as discussing how these powers have been changed, amplified, and taken advantage of during the “modern presidency” and ...
The intended audience that this article is directed towards is the public. DeBrabander begins the article with him explaining how Barack Obama is ready to lead direct attacks on ISIS. Barack Obama has said we will put “no boots on the ground” in Syria. This immediately establishes the article as informal and personal. It is a great way to capture the reader's interest. DeBrabander is right away informing the readers the main concerns about this article. At the end of the first paragraph DeBrander states, "If any group deserves drone strikes, it may as well be ISIS."
The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives (fbi.gov).” By this definition, terrorism can be classified as internal or international based on the overall intent of the attack. Terrorism has been around since the beginning of time, but it’s only since 2011 that the world has come to fully understand the meaning of terrorism. The following paragraphs will highlight four different types of terrorist attacks that all took place within the United States spanning over a 40 year time period.
It’s astounding how easy it is to forget that we are at war. Just recently, the Obama administration has declared war against ISIS. During his ISIS war speech, he refers to the enemy as “barbarians, terrorists and monsters”. He also promised to defeat ISIS, without the use of ground troops (Winsor). We do not like to watch our fellow Americans deployed to dangerous oversea locations. The President bashes ISIS and promises not to get completely involved with the conflict in order to gain support for the war. Unfortunately, his tactics are ineffective. A survey conducted by CNN shows that about 57% of Americans disapprove of how Obama is conducting his war on ISIS (CNN). Additionally, about 40% of Americans don’t believe we should fight ISIS
9/11 was a tragic day for New Yorkers and citizens of the U.S. This topic is too emotional for some people to talk about, but we need to stop trying to forget what occurred that day and put our own efforts into solving what really went down. Let me start off by explaining the story that most people remembered 9/11 as. In the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorist that were in a group called al–Qaeda snuck through a billion dollar defense system with knives and box cutters, and were able to hijacked 4 planes. All planes were destined to go to California. At 8:45, one plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03, a second plane hit the south tower of the WTC, crashing into the 60th floor. About an hour and
On the daybreak of September 2011, 19 members of the Al Qaeda terrorist’s organization hijacked four commercial jets. Two planes collided into the infamous World Trade Center’s twin towers in lower Manhattan, and another crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C (pg. 301). Al Qaeda, a terrorist was blamed for the attacks with verification from Osama bin Laden. During the attack Former President Bush was visiting my elementary school to support adolescents about their high performing test scores when America was assaulted. He immediately left to report back to his association to plan what to do about the incursion. Following the attack, Bush declared a global war against the assailment of Iraq. The Bush administration asserted that the operation was set in order to find and destroy Saddam Hussein and his allies (guardian.co.uk). System analysts proposed that any system, in reference to the Bush Administration had the responsibility to execute any suitable task for the situation at hand following the procedures mandated by Congress. This system is...
Within the world today, there are many organizations with varying opinions about specific ideals. But some of the organizations will take things to the extreme, and will do almost anything to prove that their view is the right one. This extreme act to further an objective is known as terrorism, but what exactly is a formal definition of terrorism? Frank Schmalleger defines it as “[a] violent act or an act dangerous to human life, in violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state, that is committed to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (Criminal Justice Today, 2013 p.560). The American way of life and other aspects such as policy and the criminal justice system have been impacted by terrorism in many ways over the course of the twenty first century.
There are many differing definitions of terrorism. What is terrorism? How do we define it? Why is one man’s terrorist another man’s freedom fighter? These are just a few of the questions that face the world on a daily basis. There are many challenges that face the international community when it comes to how to define terrorism and what it constitutes. This paper will explore the challenges facing scholars when it comes to labeling terror and discuss potential ways to properly define it.
Categorical terrorism, according to Jeff Goodwin, is defined as “the strategic use of violence and threats of violence, usually intended to influence several audiences, by oppositional political groups against civilian or noncombatants who belong to a specific entity, religious or national group, social class or some other collectivity, without regard to their individual identities or roles.” More so, in terms of definition, according to a study done by Jeffrey Record in 2003, there was a count of over 109 definitions of terrorism, covering 22 different categorical elements. During the 70s and 80s, the United Nations struggled to define the term, finally coming up with the following definition: “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.”
...d the success of these attacks, s they are foiled before any serious damage can be done. Increased intelligence into the operations of al Qaeda has allowed the United States and its allies to be more successful in completely destroying the terrorist organization.
Plots have been disrupted. Terrorists like Osama bin Laden have been taken off the battlefield. We’ve drawn down from nearly 180,000 troops in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000. With a coalition of more than 70 nations and a relentless campaign of more than 16,000 airstrikes so far, we are breaking the back of ISIL and taking away its safe havens, and we’ve accomplished this at a cost of $10 billion over two years – the same amount that we spent in one month at the height of the Iraq
This situation Obama states the things we have to do in order to destroy Isil and be safe. He is keeping our military out to hunt down terrorists, providing training and equipment, and working with
Terrorism is one of the most extensively discussed issues of our time and at the same time it is also one of the least understood. The term itself “terrorism” means many different things to different people, cultures, and races. As a result, trying to define or classify terrorism with one universal definition is nearly impossible. The definition of terrorism used in this research is a reflection of much of the Western and American way of defining it. The definition of terrorism is,